Durbanville to reopen 23rd September 2017

Durbanville racetrack to reopen

Mark van Deventer

Durbanville will soon be staging racing again as a complete overhaul of the course is nearing completion. The first meeting back will take place on Saturday, 23^rd September 2017, a couple of weeks later than initially planned.

Senior jockeys galloped six horses at the country course on Monday morning and provided complimentary feedback. Bernard Fayd Herbe, Richard Fourie and Grant van Niekerk were amongst those to have a whirl around the newly cambered bends, level straight and extended pull up area.

Dean Diederichs is the superintendant responsible for maintaining Kenilworth in pristine shape and for rehabilitating Durbanville. Local horse-men are unanimous that he has carried out an extremely difficult job with real skill, despite complications brought about by the Cape suffering through a radical water shortage.

“The gallops went well so I’m very happy – things are cool”, said a relieved Diederichs. Explaining reasons for the slight postponement of racing action from dates initially slated near the beginning of September, “The weather has not played ball, so we’ve decided on giving the grass longer to knit.”

Durbanville is needed as an alternative venue to take the pressure off the Kenilworth surface –it’s historically been used during Winter and into the Spring. The relaxed country venue had a reputation for being rather unfair to horses drawn out wide, and the prevailing track bias heavily favoured front runners able to secure a rails run. The uneven strips down the straight were jokingly called “speed bumps” by the jocks, whilst drama’s regularly unfolded in the tricky pull up area.

Once racing authorities decided to do away with the old facility, there was some debate about turning it into a Polytrack, but Western Cape trainers outvoted that proposal. The consensus being that turf offers a superior product to the “cheaper” racing that takes place on artificial surfaces.

Though Durbanville remains a turf course it has, in other respects, gone through a total makeover. A dogleg has been designed to mitigate against the draw bias over sprints and the bends are now properly cambered. Those dreaded “speed bumps” have been flattened, with the pull up area extended as part of the track redesign and upgrade. Indications are favourable, and it will be interesting to see how things play out when a revamped Durbanville opens again to full thoroughbred fields in around a months’ time.